Sunday, May 31, 2020

NEW GUIDELINES TO FIGHT COVID-19 TO BE EFFECTIVE
FROM 1ST JUNE 2020

New Guidelines to fight
COVID-19 to be effective from 1st June 2020

Strict enforcement of lockdown in Containment
Zones, which are to be demarcated by State/ UT Governments based on Health
Ministry guidelines

Phased re-opening of all activities outside
Containment Zones; Unlock 1 to have an Economic focus

Night Curfew to remain in force on movement of
individuals for all non-essential activities from 9 pm to 5 am

Posted On: 30 MAY
2020 7:47PM by PIB Delhi

Union
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines to fight COVID-19 and for
phased re-opening of areas outside the Containment Zones, today. The
guidelines would come into effect from June 1, 2020 and would be effective till
June 30, 2020. The current phase of re-opening, Unlock 1, will have an
economic focus. The new guidelines have been issued based on extensive
consultations held with States and UTs.

A
strict lockdown was imposed throughout the country since March 24, 2020.
All activities were prohibited except essential activities. Subsequently, in a
graded manner and keeping the overarching objective of containing the spread of
COVID-19 in view, the lockdown measures have been relaxed.

Salient features of the new guidelines

Lockdown
measures would continue to be implemented strictly in the containment zones.
These will be demarcated by the State/ UT Governments, after taking into
consideration the guidelines issued by the Health Ministry. Within the
containment zones, strict perimeter control shall be maintained and only
essential activities allowed.

All
activities that were prohibited earlier would be opened up in areas outside
Containment Zones in a phased manner, with the stipulation of following
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), to be prescribed by the Health Ministry:

Phase I (permitted to open from June 8, 2020)

·Religious places and places of worship for
public;

·Hotels, restaurants and other hospitality
services; and

·Shopping malls.

Health
Ministry would issue SOPs for the above activities, in consultation with the
Central Ministries/ Departments concerned and other stakeholders, for ensuring social
distancing and to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Phase II

Schools,
colleges, educational/ training/ coaching institutions etc., will be opened
after consultations with States and UTs. State Governments/ UT
administrations are being advised to hold consultations at the institution
level with parents and other stakeholders. Based on the feedback, a
decision on the re-opening of these institutions will be taken in the month of
July, 2020. MoHFW will prepare SOP for these institutions.

Limited number of activities to remain
prohibited throughout the country

·Dates for the opening of above activities would
be decided in Phase III, based
on assessment of the situation.

Unrestricted Movement of Persons and Goods

·No restriction on inter-State and intra-State
movement of persons and goods. No separate permission/ approval/ e-permit
would be required for such movements.

·However, if a State/ UT, based on reasons of
public health and its assessment of the situation, proposes to regulate
movement of persons, it would give wide publicity in advance regarding the
restrictions to be placed on such movement, and the related procedures to be
followed.

Night curfew would continue to
remain in force, on the movement of individuals, for all non-essential
activities. However, the revised timings of the curfew will be from 9 pm
to 5 am.

National Directives for COVID-19 management would
continue to be followed throughout the country, with a view to ensure social
distancing.

States to decide on activities outside
Containment Zones

States
and UTs, based on their assessment of the situation, may prohibit certain
activities outside the Containment zones or impose such restrictions, as deemed
necessary.

Protection for vulnerable persons

Vulnerable
persons, i.e., persons above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities,
pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 years, are advised to stay at
home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.

Use of Aarogya Setu

The Aarogya
Setu mobile application is a powerful tool built by Government
of India to facilitate quick identification of persons infected by COVID-19, or
at risk of being infected, thus acting as a shield for individuals and the
community. With a view to ensure safety, various authorities are advised
to encourage the use of the application.

REITERATION OF THE INSTRUCTIONS ON STREAMLINING THE PROCEDURE FOR
VERIFICATION OF CLAIMS OF CANDIDATES BELONGING TO SCHEDULED CASTES, SCHEDULED
TRIBES AND OTHER BACKWARD CLASSES FOR PURPOSE OF APPOINTMENT TO THE
POSTS/SERVICES. (CLICK THE LINK
BELOW TO VIEW)

Friday, May 29, 2020

FM LAUNCHES FACILITY
OF INSTANT PAN

THROUGH AADHAAR BASED
E-KYC

Ministry of Finance

FM
launches facility of Instant PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC

Posted On: 28 MAY 2020 4:42PM by PIB Delhi

In line with the announcement made in the
Union Budget, Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala
Sitharaman formally launched the facility for instant allotment of PAN (on near
to real time basis) here today. This facility is now available for those PAN
applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number
registered with Aadhaar. The allotment process is paperless and an electronic
PAN (e-PAN) is issued to the applicants free of cost.

It may be recalled that in the Union Budget,
2020, Finance Minister Smt. Sitharaman had announced to launch instant PAN facility
shortly. In para 129 of the Budget Speech, the Finance Minister had
stated, “In
the last Budget, I had introduced the interchangeability of PAN and Aadhaar for
which necessary rules were already notified. In order to further ease the
process of allotment of PAN, soon we will launch a system under which PAN shall
be instantly allotted online on the basis of Aadhaar without any requirement
for filling up of detailed application form.”

The facility of instant PAN through Aadhaar
based e-KYC has been launched formally today, however, its ‘Beta version’ on
trial basis was started on 12th Feb 2020 on the e-filing website of Income
Tax Department. Since then onwards, 6,77,680 instant PANs have been allotted
with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, till 25th May 2020.

It may also be noted that as on 25.05.2020, a
total of 50.52 crore PANs have been allotted to the taxpayers, out of which,
around 49.39 crore are allotted to the individuals and more than 32.17crore are
seeded with Aadhaar so far.

The process of applying for instant PAN is
very simple. The instant PAN applicant is required to access the e-filing
website of the Income Tax Department to provide her/his valid Aadhaar number
and then submit the OTP received on her/his Aadhaar registered mobile number.
On successful completion of this process, a 15-digit acknowledgment number is
generated. If required, the applicant can check the status of the request
anytime by providing her/his valid Aadhaar number and on successful allotment,
can download the e-PAN. The e-PAN is also sent to the applicant on her/his
email id, if it is registered with Aadhaar.

The launch of the Instant PAN facility is yet
another step by the Income Tax Department towards Digital India, thereby
creating further ease of compliance to the taxpayers.